Throughout human experience, the climate and environment of the Nile Valley have changed like the course of the river itself. Between 10,000 and 6000 years ago, the Nile, in places, flowed along a different course than today. Now, some of its ancient channels are dried-up riverbeds (called "wadis"), far out in the desert.

Wherever the Nile flowed, people settled beside it. Today archaeologists are discovering dozens of ancient village sites far out in the desert, where the Nile used to flow.

Examples of Geological Change in the Nile Valley

The Wadi Howar once flowed a thousand miles from Lake Chad, and was filled with crocodiles and hippopotamus. Elephants, giraffes, and other African animals roamed the shores. Many people lived, hunted, and fished around the river. As it dried up it became a series of lakes, then finally a lifeless desert. The animals and the people gradually moved away.

The White Nile once flowed northward into what in now the Bayuda Desert. Its ancient bed is known as the Wadi Muqaddam. Archaeologists are finding many ancient settlement sites there as well. There is evidence that people once ate fish and fresh-water mussels.

In the Wadi el-Khowi area, the Nile once flowed several miles east of its present bed. As the river gradually moved westward between 5000 and 3500 BCE, the settlers moved with it. The earlier villages and the old riverbed now lie in total desert.

By about 3500 BCE, most of the ancient river systems had disappeared, leaving the Nile much as it looks today.

Along the dried up Nile beds in the desert east of Kerma, archaeologists are finding remains of very early villages and their cemeteries.

Learn about prehistoric Nubian chiefs and their villages.

Around 3400 BCE, some local chiefs in Egypt became so powerful and wealthy that they formed kingdoms. Archaeologists wonder whether the same thing happened at this time in Nubia.

Learn more about the earliest kingdoms on the Nile.

About 3200 BCE a king of Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt and united 600 miles of the Nile Valley from Aswan to the Mediterranean Sea.

Although heavy trade continued between Nubia and Egypt, the more powerful Egyptian kings sometimes tried to control Nubia. Some of the earliest known Egyptian inscriptions mention war with Nubia.

Explore Nubian archery in Nubia: Land of the Bow.

After taking over Nubia, the Egyptian kings sent men there to find unusual stones that they could use to decorate their pyramids. Some of the stones used to make chapels and statues for the pyramids were brought from Nubian mines 600 miles away.

Learn more about the Egyptian conquest of Lower Nubia.

Explore the building of the Egyptian pyramids.

About 2300 BCE, groups of cattle herders moved into Lower Nubia and the Egyptians withdrew. The Egyptians called them "Nehesy," but archaeologists call them the "C-Group." These newcomers created three small settlements called Wawat, Irtjet, and Setju.

The Egyptians were friendly with an Upper Nubian kingdom called Yam. In four trips, the Egyptian trader Harkhuf brought gifts from the pharaoh to the king of Yam. In return, the king of Yam sent Harkhuf back with Nubian goods which he carried back in caravans of 300 donkeys.

Learn more about the mysterious "C-Group" people of Lower Nubia.

Read details of Harkhuf’s journey.

About 2200 BCE, Egypt lost power and civil wars started. In Upper Nubia, Yam disappeared and was replaced by a powerful new state called Kush.

For more details, read Old Kingdoms Decline, New Kingdoms Emerge.

About 2040 BCE, the pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom reunited all of Egypt. By 1950 BCE they took over Lower Nubia, built a series of forts, and began to attack Kush.

By 1950 BCE, the pharaohs took over Lower Nubia and began to attack Kush. To defend themselves, the Egyptians build a series of forts.

Explore the Middle Kingdom forts.

About 1750 BCE, Egypt again became weak and withdrew from Lower Nubia. The kings of Kush then sent their troops to take over the Egyptian forts and to occupy Lower Nubia.

Kerma is the city archaeologists believe was capital of Kush. It is the first known major city in Nubia. Archaeologists found its palaces, temples and tombs. In the kings’ graves they found the skeletons of hundreds of servants who were sacrificed to help the king in the afterlife.

Learn more about Kerma City.

By 1650 BCE, a group of people from the Middle East called the Hyksos took over Northern Egypt. The Hyskos kings tried to convince the kings of Kush to invade Egypt in order to eliminate their rival kings in Thebes.

By 1540 BCE the Egyptian pharaohs forced the Hyksos kings out of Lower Egypt and invaded Nubia. They finally took over Kush and make it part of Egypt.

Learn more about the Egyptian conquest of Kush.

Read about the founding of Napata City.

Between 1450 and 1230 BCE, Egypt was the richest, most powerful nation on earth. Much of its wealth came from the gold mines of Nubia.

Read about the importance of Nubian gold.

Around 1100 BCE, Egypt gradually lost control of Nubia and retreated northward. We know very little of Nubia during the period between 1100 and 800 BCE.

Find out more about the Nubian "dark age" and the new rise of Kush.

About 750 BCE, Piankhy (Piya), the king of Kush, invaded Egypt.

Read about the Kushite conquest of Eqypt.

Read about horses in ancient Nubia.

In 712 BCE, Piankhy’s brother, Shabaqo, invaded Egypt again. The Nubians ruled Egypt as the 25^th Dynasty. Their empire was the largest ever created on the Nile in ancient times.

Learn more about Egypt under Nubian rule.

Read about the sacred mountain of Jebel Barkal.

In 667 BCE the Assyrians (from the region of modern Iraq) invaded Egypt and captured Memphis. Taharqa, the Nubian king, escaped to Napata.

Learn more about Taharqa.

Read about the role of women in ancient Nubia.

After Taharqa's death in 664 BCE, his nephew Tanutaman became king, reinvaded Egypt and reclaimed the empire. But the Assyrians recaptured Egypt in 661 BCE and pushed Tanutaman and the Nubian Dynasty out of Egypt forever.

Read about the Assyrians invasion of Egypt and the retreat of Kush.

The Assyrian kings withdrew from Egypt. The Egyptian prince of Sais, a former ally of the Assyrians, then claimed the empty throne of Egypt. At the same time, the kings of Kush, in Nubia, continued to call themselves Egypt's rightful rulers.

Read about the breakaway of Egypt and the new 26^th Dynasty.

The Egyptian king Psammeticus II invaded Kush and sacked and burned Napata.  Meroe became the capital of Kush.

Learn more about the invasion of Kush by Psammeticus II.

The Persians conquered Egypt in 525 BCE. Kush remained independent during this time, which is known as the "Napatan Period."

Explore the pyramids at Nuri.

In 330 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and founded Alexandria. After his death, Alexander’s general Ptolemy ruled Egypt. The descendents of Ptolemy ruled Egypt for three centuries. Kush remained independent during this time, which is called the "Early Meroitic Period".

Read about the rise of Meroe city.

Explore the pyramids at Meroe.

Learn about writing in Meroe.

In 33 BCE, the Romans defeated Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemies. Egypt became a Roman province, but the Romans could not control Kush.

Read about the importance of iron in Meroe.

In 24 BCE, the Romans tried to tax the people of Lower Nubia. The ruler of Meroe, "Queen Candace" did not want her people to pay this tax. She sent her army to attack Aswan. The Romans then attacked Napata. The war ended with a peace treaty between Rome and Kush, in which Rome gave up most of Lower Nubia to Kush.

Learn more about Queen "Candace".

About 60 CE, the Roman emperor Nero sent an expedition into Nubia to find the source of the Nile. The explorers visited Meroe, where "Queen Candace" of Kush helped them.

Find out more about the Roman Nile Expedition.

Kush became less powerful. Researchers believe this is because the trade routes moved from Meroe to the rising kingdom of Axum (where Ethiopia is located today).

Between 300 and 400 AD Meroe fell to the tribes of the Noba (whose name is probably the origin of the name "Nubia"). Soon after that, the kings of Axum invaded Kush and, for a short period of time, added its land to theirs.

About 400 CE the old kingdom of Kush broke up into separate smaller states called Alwa, Makuria, and Nobatia. By 569 CE, missionaries of Byzantium converted the Nubian chiefs to Christianity.

Explore the Nobatian Royal Tombs at Ballana and Qustul.

In 616 CE, the armies of Persia conquered Egypt.

The Arabs took over the Persian Empire (including Egypt) in 640 CE. The Christian kingdoms in Nubia resisted the Arabs and remained independent.

Learn about the capital of Makuria, Old Dongola.

Between 800 and 960 CE the Christian Nubian kingdom of Makuria reached the height of its power. Its kings frequently raided Upper Egypt and controlled it for several years.

Between 1171 and 1174 CE the Arab leader Saladin raided Egypt. A small Christian kingdom called Dotawo emerged in Lower Nubia.

The slave soldiers who protected the Egyptian sultan took over his throne. They were called the Mamlukes. These new warlike rulers harassed the Arab nomad tribes in Egypt and drove them south into Nubia.

After 1272 CE Makuria became weak because of Arab and Mamluke attacks, and because of quarrels within the royal family.

Alwa weakened and broke into smaller chiefdoms. Soon after, Arab tribes, looking for places to feed their cattle, took over. Islam replaced Christianity here. Dotawo disappeared by 1500 CE.

In 1504 CE the black African Funj kings, from south of Nubia, converted to Islam and extended their rule over Nubia. West of the Nile another black African Islamic kingdom emerged, called Darfur.

Read about the Funj capital city of Sennar.

In 1517 CE Ottoman Turkey seized control all of Egypt. Forty years later, they extended their control into Lower Nubia.

Between 1600 and 1820 CE Nubia broke up into twelve small Islamic kingdoms.

By 1800 CE the Arabs began calling Nubia and the greater country to the south "the Sudan", which in Arabic means "(Land of) the Blacks."

In 1820 CE Mohammed-Ali, a Turkish ruler in Egypt, sent an army up the Nile. His troops conquered the Sudan and created a huge empire that reached all the way to central Africa. He founded the city of Khartoum at the junction of the Blue and White Niles.

Learn more about the Sudan under Turkish rule.

In 1882 CE Great Britain took control of Egypt’s finances and foreign relations.

The Sudanese religious leader Mohammed Ahmed el-Mahdi led a revolt against Egypt. He established the Sudan as an independent, Islamic state which remained at war with Egypt and Great Britain until 1898.

Read more about The Sudan under the Mahdiya.

Between 1898 and 1956 the British ruled the Sudan in the name of Egypt. They called it the "Anglo-Egyptian Sudan."

Read about Khartoum after 1898.

The Sudan became an independent state known as the Republic of the Sudan.

Between 1961 and 1965, the Aswan Dam was built in Egypt. The dam created a lake that flooded all of Lower Nubia, including many ancient Nubian archaeological sites. Many people were forced to move.

But before the lake filled up, archaeologists came from all over the world to excavate threatened ancient sites and to rescue important monuments.

Learn more about the Aswan Dam.

In 2001 the Sudan is a country at a crossroads. While emerging from a long, destructive civil war, it is developing rapidly. Large reserves of oil have been discovered; new highways, bridges, dams, power plants and irrigation projects are being built to meet the demands of an expanding economy and rising population. Unfortunately, such rapid development threatens the country's priceless cultural heritage. Conscious of the emergency, the Sudan government welcomes foreign archaeologists and offers them enthusiastic assistance. Archaeology is now playing a vital role in identifying the fragile record of Sudan's past before it is lost forever; spectacular discoveries are also bringing tourists to Sudan in record numbers.